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Real Estate Report
__FORCETOC__ 2000 Real Estate Report Don Mills Household income: $57,055 1999 sale price: $260,492 1998 sale price: $264,413 Number of days on market: 38 Property tax: $2,887 Rent for a one-bedroom: $694 Rental vacancy rate: 1.2% "Don" and "Mills" are linked words that speak of history, though many of us have to pause for a moment to remember why: once the Don River was powerful enough to make the wheels of a mill turn, and that happened to be when lumber mills and grain mills used water power. In the middle of the 19th century, there were four sawmills around what we call Wilket Creek Park, at the corners of what are now Leslie and Eglinton, south of the community of Don Mills. "Don Mills" acquired another meaning, also charged with history, about a century after the sawmills were running. In the mid- 1950s, the area was publicized as a miracle of modern city building, a planned community that would deliver (at moderate cost) quiet neighbourhoods, clean air and a safe environment. Directed by one of the major financiers of the era, E.P. Taylor, it was perhaps the most self consciously planned community in Canada. National magazines ran stories on culde-sac streets designed to eliminate through traffic and the separation of one land use from another: school here, shopping centre there, houses there. It was all logical, or so it seemed. To this day, Don Mills retains at least a whisper of that optimistic moment in the sun, but so much else has happened since then that its once trendy streets seem routine. Moreover, the poor public transport in the area, once a minor grievance, has turned into a source of permanent irritation. But Don Mills remains pleasant. And now it can make a laudable claim: it's the safest neighbourhood in the city. "2000 real estate guide" Fulford, Robert. Toronto Life 34.2 (Feb 2000): Insert. 2001 Real Estate Report Household income: $67,617 2000 sale price: $285,736 1999 sale price: 262,178 Number of days on market: 35 Property tax: $2,734.74 Detached dwellings: 25.67% Rented dwellings: 51.28% "2001 real estate guide" Fulford, Robert. Toronto Life 35.2 (Feb 2001): Insert. 2002 Real Estate Report Household income: $66,926 2001 sale price: $298,497 2000 sale price: $285,843 Number of days on market: 35 Property tax: $2,653 Detached dwellings: 35.37% Rented dwellings: 47.85% "2002 real estate guide" Fulford, Robert. Toronto Life 36.2 (Feb 2002): Insert. . 2013: #2 Best Place to Live in Toronto BANBURY-DON MILLS E. P. TAYLOR, one of Toronto's greatest tycoons, started amassing the land to build Don Mills in 1947, and by the time construction was completed two decades later, he'd laid down the template for suburban development in Toronto and all across Canada. While his bold plan for a new community had many imitators, it has had few equals. Instead of completely razing the land, Taylor built the rambling, discontinuous residential streets around existing trees and green spaces, with generous square lots for the detached homes. The houses themselves are set back at varying distances from the main streets, and feature quirky mid-century design touches like gabled roofs sloping off the sides to form carports. Behind the streets, a maze of paths form an internal walkway system (typically filled with tykes on bikes), and nearly 20 per cent of the area is given over to parkland. In 2009, the original Don Mills Centre reopened as the more upscale Shops at Don Mills, an open-air mall with its own network of streets and a central square with a sculptural clock tower designed by Douglas Coupland. The development has quickly transformed a sleepy suburban mall into a destination. Toronto's most entrepreneurial chef, Mark McEwan, chose the setting for his first gourmet grocery shop, a giant toy store for foodies with wallets to match their tastes. (It also doesn't hurt that the new LCBO is three times the size of the one it replaced.) In 2013, Taylor's suburban idyll is still one of Toronto's most desirable places to live."The Best Places to Live in Toronto", D'Cruz, Andrew. Toronto Life 47.9 (Sep 2013) Here is a reader's response to that article: "Though some of your readers may have been surprised to see Banbury-Don Mills ranked No. 2 in your "Best Places to Live" list, as a longtime Don Mills resident, I was not. Once, many years ago, I told someone where I lived, and her response has stayed with me all this time: "Oh, you live in a park!" she replied. As you mention in your article, the trees and green space in my neighbourhood are some of the loveliest in the city. That woman was right: I do live in a park! And now, everyone else knows." -Dawn Dickinson, Toronto"LETTERS", Anonymous. Toronto Life 47.11 (Nov 2013) References